My 2015 Prospective Writing Projects

Whenever I have a book idea, one of the things I do for fun is to draft up a simple cover design that conveys the feel of the book. It is both a focusing and motivational technique for me, and although some of the covers will never result in stories - at least in 2015 - I thought I might share a few of them as a sort of "teaser" for the rest of the year. Keep in mind, these are just draft covers, and might change considerably before the titles (maybe, eventually) go to print. Any and all feedback is certainly welcome!

HANGMAN #2: Battle for the Blacktop. The next book in the HANGMAN series. Ex-Green Beret Sergeant Jamie Lynch is hired to provide protection for a long-haul trucking company when attacks by a gang of outlaw bikers threaten to ruin the business. Not only must Lynch take on a roaring pack of chain-swinging, gun-wielding, maniacs, he must figure out who is backing the outlaws and attempting to ruin the trucking company. It'll be death by bullet, blade, and bumper along the highways and back roads of southern California.

KANSAS KILLERS, the sequel to RENEGADE'S REVENGE. Paul and David Miller decide to leave Missouri and head west, but as they ride into Kansas, they find themselves dodging both U.S. Cavalry patrols and packs of roving Jayhawkers, many of whom are now little more than murderous, pillaging outlaws. When the Miller brothers save a young woman from death at the hands of a pair of Jayhawker bandits, they find themselves on the run from a dozen more, as the band's leader seeks revenge for the deaths of his men.

STREET SWEEPER, a vigilante cop novel set in Boston, 1985. Detective Nick Malone used to be a good cop, always playing by the rules. But when Malone makes a move against the Irish mob, the rules set free the gangsters who killed Malone's partner. Unable to find justice while working within the bounds of the law, Malone decides the rules don't just need to be bent, they need to be blown away. Maintaining the facade of a good cop by day, Malone cleans up the streets of Boston at night by sweeping away the filth with a loaded shotgun and a magnum revolver.

KRUEGER #1: Boston Bloodbath. Another Boston-based story, set in 1921. Krueger is a former German storm-trooper who'd fought in the trenches and no-man's land of the Great War for four bloody years. Wounded by bullet, blade, and bomb shell, Krueger survived and returned to the front again and again, a killing machine who just wouldn't die. Now a wandering soldier of fortune, Krueger is hired by a gang of bootleggers fighting to dominate the black-market liquor trade in Boston. But when you hire Krueger to fight your battles, you better be prepared for all-out war..

PANZER ACE: Crushing Poland. Cannons roar and tank treads grind men into pulp as the Blitzkrieg of the Third Reich rolls into Poland. Panzer commander Victor Krieger has no allegiance in his heart for Hitler and his gang of Nazi thugs, but he is a soldier born and bred, and the business of fighting is what he knows best, the razor's edge between life and death the only place he calls home. Krieger pits the armaments and armor of his Panzer against waves of stout-hearted Polish defenders, where quarter is neither asked, nor given. It is war at its ugliest and most savage, just the way Krieger likes it.

DOGFACES: A Day at the Beach. It'll be one hell of a summer's day for Private Jonathan "Jack" Russell and the other men of Dog Company. Along with Captain Collier, Lieutenant Shepherd, Sargent Barker, Corporal Basset, and all the rest, Russell finds himself bobbing around off the Normandy coastline, about to hit the bloody beaches of Fortress Europe and drive back the Germans one hard-fought step at a time. Unfortunately for the men of Dog Company, the same cosmic prankster that put them all together in the same outfit is going to make surviving their day at the beach tougher than a concrete pillbox.

HANGMAN #1: San Francisco Slaughter - Available Now

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My '70s-era Men's Adventure novel SAN FRANCISCO SLAUGHTER is now available on Amazon for the Kindle, with a trade paperback format to follow later this month. I'm copying the Amazon product description below. Thank you again to everyone who gave feedback and support to this project - I couldn't have done it without you!

Amazon Book Description:

California, 1973. Back home after three years in the jungles of Southeast Asia, former Green Beret Jamie “Hangman” Lynch is enjoying the good life, drinking beer and chasing skirts along San Diego’s Mission Beach. But Lynch finds himself growing increasingly restless, and dreaming of getting back into the fight again.
Lynch asks his former commanding officer for guidance, and is offered a chance at some excitement: a private sector job working for the CEO of a San Francisco tech company in need of a man who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. The assignment? Hunt down a man named Roth, a whiz-kid engineer in debt to the Vegas mob. Roth has stolen an advanced military prototype and is looking to sell it to the highest bidder.
Lynch accepts the job and finds himself working with Richard, an enigmatic Texan mercenary, and Blake, the company’s head of security. The three men face off against Cranston, a murderous ex-cop turned enforcer-for-hire, who’s got an army of ruthless thugs turning San Francisco upside down looking for Roth. If Cranston gets to Roth before Lynch and his partners do, Roth can kiss the prototype - and his life - goodbye.
SAN FRANCISCO SLAUGHTER is a hard-edged action-adventure novel. There's drinking, profanity, and sex. There's fast cars and big guns, sharp knives and loose women. Arson, torture, and murder are just tools in the hands of men who’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done. And while the good guys aren't so great, the bad guys are even worse.

BOOK REVIEW: The Assassin's Prayer by Mark Allen

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Mark Allen was a "slow burn" indie writer who put out a number of short stories and novellas in the beginning of his indie career, most of which sold a very modest amount of copies. However, with his first full-length novel, THE ASSASSIN'S PRAYER, Allen's success as an indie writer took off in a very impressive fashion. Now, although his sales have slowed slightly since the book's initial release, Allen's novel of bloodshed and redemption is still going strong.

THE ASSASSIN'S PRAYER is the story of Travis Kain, a killer-for-hire who once worked for the CIA, but now most often sells his services to organized crime. He lives in a state of almost constant melancholy after the death of his wife several years ago, using violence to dull the pain of his loss.

When we meet him, Kain is contracted to kill off another organized crime "made man" of some considerable status, and while the job goes mostly as planned, there are complications involving some innocent witnesses. Kain has vowed to never harm innocents (part of the "prayer" which gives the book its title), and so walks away from tying off these loose ends, an act that has serious consequences for him later on.

Kain also runs into an old flame from years gone by, and this kindles some old passions he thought were long-dead. There's a lot of conflicting emotions going on, as Kain tries to sort out his feelings for this old flame while still hurting from the loss of his wife.

To further complicate matters, the CIA - who never drop a grudge - sends one of their top "operators" after Kain, because apparently his departure from the Agency was less than mutually accepted. The operator who goes after Kain is a real sumbitch, and he's got a whole cadre of other sumbitches along with him.

All of this comes together to create a pretty action-packed, dramatic novel. Allen is a big fan of the action genre, and heaps it on with gusto. The violence is bloody and unforgiving, and some of the fights are spectacularly gruesome. If you're not into vivid depictions of violence and gore, this may not be the book for you.

Taken as a whole, TAP is a solid debut novel. There are a couple of major coincidences that form plot points in the story, and they'll either make or break a reader's enjoyment of the novel; either you'll accept them and move on, or you'll lose your suspension of disbelief and fall out of the story. I was willing to carry on and swallow the coincidences, but I'm sure it'll be a deal-breaker for some readers.

There is also a lot of emotional conflict, most of it tied to both the death of Kain's wife and the rediscovery of his long-lost flame, but there's also some deep-seated angst regarding his former best friend, whom Kain now despises. There were several times I just wanted Kain to cowboy up and quit weeping into his whiskey. If I wanted to be cheeky, I'd refer to Kain as an "Emo Assassin", but since the story moves at a pretty brisk clip, the maudlin moments don't slow the story down, and I think it helps distinguish Kain from the legion of near-robotic Grim Hired Assassins out there. Some other reviewers clearly liked a more complicated, emotional protagonist, while others found it annoying. As usual, your mileage may vary.

So if you're interested in a cool Hired Killer Thriller, consider picking up THE ASSASSIN'S PRAYER. And if you're such a cheapskate that you don't want to invest $2.99 on the book, check out some of his other works, such as "The Killing Question" and "Resurrection Bullets". Allen has quite the collection of varied short stories, and I'm sure there's something for everyone.

Meet My Main Character - Jamie "Hangman" Lynch

My friend and fellow author Justin Aucoin has asked me to carry the torch for another leg in a great "Meet My Main Character" blog-hop. This is an opportunity for writers to introduce to readers the main character of a work in progress or soon-to-be-published work. So, I'm picking Jamie Lynch, the MC of my current work in progress.

Before reading more, be sure to check out Justin's blog post, where we meet his main character, Jake Hawking.

1) What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?

My character's name is Jamie "Hangman" Lynch. He's a fictional character, part of my "Lynch Family Legacy" of characters featured in my other books, such as KILLER INSTINCTS and my COMMANDO series of WW2 novels. Jamie is the son of COMMANDO's Tommy Lynch and uncle to KI's William Lynch.

2) When and where is the story set?

The story is set in 1973, and starts in San Diego, California. The story quickly moves up the coast to San Francisco, where events take place all over the Bay area, from Palo Alto to Bodega Bay.

3) What should we know about him/her?
 
Jamie's 24 years old in 1973. He's a former sergeant in the United States Army, 5th Special Forces Group, and from 1970-72, served in the top-secret Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). Previous to that, he was a corporal in the 101st Airborne Division, and fought in the Battle of Hamburger Hill in 1969, where he was wounded. In 1973, Jamie has been out of the military for about nine months, living above a surf shop along Mission Beach in San Diego.

4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

Jamie made it back from Vietnam in fairly good shape, both physically and mentally. He suffered a few minor wounds, but he's in prime physical condition. Mentally he's doing okay, although he has recurring dreams and nightmares about the war. Most recently, his dreams have involved going back to the war, and even though in some of his dreams he gets killed, the overall sense in his dreams is that Jamie is happy to be back "home" in the war. He's self-aware enough to realize that the hum-drum civilian life isn't for him; he's spent his entire adult life so far in the military, training for and fighting in a war, and now he's basically a beach bum, living off some money set aside and working a part-time job in the surf shop he lives above.  Jamie begins to feel like "a tiger in a cage, restless and confined", and worries that one day he'll channel that aggression and confined feeling in a way that will wind up with him in jail, dead, or some other unfortunate outcome.

So, Jamie gets in touch with General Carson, an officer who used to be Jamie's CO back in Vietnam. He confesses his problems and asks Carson for help. Carson tells Jamie he knows of a businessman up in San Francisco, the head of a tech company with strong ties to military technology research, who is in need of someone with Jamie's skill set to "solve a problem". Jamie, not caring much what the problem is and only knowing it'd give him an escape from his cage of inactivity and boredom, accepts the job. A great deal of violent conflict ensues shortly thereafter.

5) What is the personal goal of the character?

Jamie's primary motivation throughout the story is to find purpose in his civilian life. Like many veterans, he's come back to the "real world" after being in the military for over five years, and the Army is the only adult life he's ever known, and his skills-set is, at the very least, pretty specific. He can't picture himself living the life of a 9-to-5 office dweller, driving to work every morning in a station wagon, typing up reports and sitting in meetings, then going home at the end of the day to a house surrounded by a white picket fence, containing a darling wife and two perfect children. Even at the young age of 24, Jamie firmly believes there's no way that kind of life is his destiny.

On the other hand, Jamie understands that selling his lethal skills in the private sector is a dangerous game. As the story unfolds, and the events begin to spiral out of control, with more and more collateral damage and unforeseen consequences, Jamie realizes he's essentially a murderous criminal, and there's a good chance his actions might get him killed or sent to prison for the rest of his life - exactly the sort of outcome he was trying to avoid in the first place. On the other hand, he's got several other characters in the story, especially the mysterious gun-for-hire named Richard, affirming that this is the life for him. It becomes a tug-of-war between Jamie's moral character, and his belief in his ultimate place in the world outside of the Army.

6) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
 
The book is titled HANGMAN: SAN FRANCISCO SLAUGHTER. I hope this will be the first in a series of short novels featuring Jamie as he goes on further adventures, all under the HANGMAN series title. I wrote a teaser blog post regarding the book here.

7) When can we expect the book to be published?

I hope to have the first draft completed by the beginning of May, and off to a small cadre of interested Beta readers. Depending on their feedback, and the amount of rewriting I have to do nor not do, I hope to have the novel out on Amazon for the Kindle and Trade Paperback formats some time in June.

UPDATE: Author Mark Allen is the next stop on this blog-hop - you can meet his main character, Travis Kain, here on his page.

Book Review: FARGO #2 Panama Gold by John Benteen

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After reading the excellent debut Fargo novel a couple of weeks ago, I was really chomping at the bit to get the sequel on my Kindle ASAP. Ordering the ebook at the end of last week, I powered through Panama Gold in about 24 hours. They might be short, quick reads, but Benteen packs a LOT of action and adventure into a relatively compact story.

Panama Gold starts off with Fargo arriving in Long Island to visit his old commanding officer, The Colonel. And by 'The Colonel', we actually mean former Rough Rider and ex-President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. However, no matter how high his star had risen, Fargo will forever only think of Roosevelt as his commanding officer, and we are reminded that Fargo saved Roosevelt's life during the battle of San Juan Hill. The two are fast friends still, even after all those years (this story is set in 1912), and Roosevelt has a favor to ask of Fargo.

Roosevelt needs Fargo to kill a man.

Cleve Buckner is, like Fargo, a former military man, but unlike our main character, Buckner is a deserter, gone on the lam after shooting an officer who caught Buckner in bed with his wife. Buckner is a sort of dark reflection of Fargo; tough, battle-hardened, and utterly ruthless, but there is an evil, sadistic streak to Buckner which makes him immediately repellent. In a nice bit of symbolism, before we meet Buckner, it is pointed out that Fargo has clean, white teeth that are well-cared for, because the last thing a fighting man needs, out in the middle of nowhere on campaign, is an abscessed tooth or other ailment that could quickly lay him low. When we meed Buckner, one of the first things we learn about him is that his teeth are blackened and rotten, just like his soul.

Long story short, Roosevelt needs Fargo to kill Buckner, because Buckner has raised and trained a small army of mercenaries and cutthroats to attack and possibly blow up portions of the Panama Canal. Although Roosevelt is no longer President and has no real authority, he represents a small group of "private citizens" who have a vested interest in making sure the Canal goes through on time. There are also rumblings that foreign powers - namely Germany and Japan - would like nothing more than to see American and British naval powers deprived of the ability to move through the Canal any time soon. If Buckner succeeds in delaying the completion of the Canal by even a few months, it could give these aggressive nations just the window they need to take action on their enemies.

I won't give away any more of the story than that, because, like the first Fargo novel, there are a number of interesting twists and turns that shouldn't be spoiled. There's plenty of gun-fighting and adventure, especially in the depictions of the brutal jungles around the Canal, which Fargo finds himself having to traverse a couple of times. We are reunited once again with Fargo's small arsenal; the .38 Colt revolver loaded with "dum-dums", the sawed-off 10-gauge shotgun loaded with buckshot, and the deadly Batangas knife. Like the first novel, Fargo also carries a .30-30 Winchester carbine, but it gets misplaced early on and sees essentially no use.And again, like the first novel, the Fox double-barrel blows people away with the authority of a Napoleonic field piece loaded with canister shot, but the weapon is just so badass that we don't really care.

This book is a fitting follow-up to the first Fargo adventure, and if you liked that debut novel, you'll enjoy Panama Gold just as much. There's action, adventure, sex, boozing, gambling...pretty much everything you'd ever want in a book like this, all told with Benteen's skillful economy of words. These are definitely the sorts of books you buy as soon as you can, read as quickly as you can, and then you sit around slightly miffed that you'll have to wait so long to get your hands on the next volume.

TIER ZERO Hits the Action-Adventure Bullseye

Back about two and a half years ago, I was in the process of getting this blog back on its feet after laying fallow for a couple of years. I was writing book and movie reviews, talking about the "post modern pulp" of the 60's, 70's, and 80's, and enjoying the conversations I was having with readers.

I was also learning about the growing world of self-publishing, and beginning to form the idea that I might be able to focus myself and put 20 years of amateur writing to the test, in order to write my own book and put it out for the world to read. That's something I'd never done before, and the very thought of going it on my own, without an agent or a publishing house, was terrifying. I had a lot of people, book lovers like myself, warn me that if I went down the Dark Path of Self-Publishing, I'd become some kind of Pariah, an Untouchable if I ever wanted to enter the Real World of Traditional Publishing.

But then I started to learn that I wasn't alone - there were others out there like me who'd seen this new world and the possibilities it held, and were venturing out there come hell or high water. One of these folks was a guy named Henry Brown, another book and movie blogger with a penchant for the same sort of "post modern pulp" that I enjoyed. We commented on our respective blogs and emailed back and forth, and when I saw Henry's book available on Amazon, I picked up a copy of the ebook (the first ebook I'd ever bought, by the way) and gave it a whirl, curious to see how someone much like me, with my likes and interests, had tackled this "self-publishing" thing.

Well, to my pleasant surprise, and not inconsequential relief, Henry did real yeoman's work in writing Hell and Gone, his debut novel. The characters were fun, the action was fast and furious...well heck, I'll just link to the review I wrote back in the day. Authors like Henry and several others out there (Jack Murphy, I'm pointing at you...) gave me the confidence to believe that with some hard work and a little bit of luck, I could also pen and publish my own works.

Fast forward a couple of years. It's now 2013, Henry and I are still posting comments back and forth, trading emails, and soldiering on in the world of self-publishing. Now, however, things aren't so lonely. The world of self-pubbing is a lot different now, and people are making names for themselves, solid reputations as writers who don't need the ancient machinery of a traditional publishing house to get their works out to the general public. I've got two books out and a third on the way, and Henry's second novel, Tier Zero, has landed.

And by landed, I'm talking Normandy Invasion.

Here's the product description Henry provides on the Amazon website:

Tommy Scarred Wolf thought he had smelled the powder for the last time ten years ago. Then somebody messed with his family.

With no government willing or able to help out, it's up to Tommy and his detective brother, Vince, to find Vince's kidnapped daughter halfway around the world. But rescuing her is going to take funding, firepower, and friends. Fortunately, Tommy knows some shooters just crazy enough to tag along--including some survivors from his last suicide mission: retired SEAL team commander Rocco Cavarra; former Delta Force operator Jake McCallum; and the unflappable sniper Leon Campbell.

On the ocean, in the jungle, and an urban purgatory, Tommy Scarred Wolf and his warrior brothers will face human traffickers, modern-day pirates, a typhoon, and an ultra-secret black ops team so dangerous even the CIA can’t touch them. There's something far more sinister than just "white slavery" going on here, and it's about to ram these men through a crucible which may never end...except in death.

Henry definitely delivers the goods with Tier Zero, and shows that he's developed and matured as an author. Hell and Gone and Henry's other short works are solid, entertaining, highly readable stories, but Tier Zero is a clear step above his earlier writing and exhibits a level of craftsmanship easily comparable to, if not quite a bit better than, any of the classic 80's-era fare he and I both love. Although I have no doubt legions of Men's Adventure fans have tried to imitate the writings of their favorite authors over the years, in Henry's case, the student has definitely become the master. To the jerkwads out there who complain that all self-published materials are little better than napkin scribblings peddled by illiterates looking to milk a fast buck out of a new fad, I say that books like Tier Zero prove in my mind that such beliefs are without merit. Is there junk out there? Absolutely. But believe me, Henry's published works are well-written, professional, and worth every penny paid for their entertainment value.

If you're a fan of the Men's Adventure fiction genre, if you like big guns, hot girls, pirates getting their butts kicked, brutal gunfights and tales of cunning tradecraft and high adventure in exotic locales, Tier Zero  needs to be in your hands as soon as possible.

Book Review: Task Force Desperate by Peter Nealen

Former Recon Marine Peter Nealen has written an excellent debut novel, another in a great new class of 21st century paramilitary men's adventure novels that we've begun to see over the last few years. With over a decade since the Global War on Terror started, there is now a whole new class of veteran/author emerging at a time when the ebook and indie book publishing world is making it easy for someone with a deft pen and some great creative talent to make a name for themselves in the world of action-adventure fiction.

Task Force Desperate focuses on a small, hearty band of mercenaries called in to perform a reconnaissance after a US base in Africa is overrun, with two hundred hostages taken. Probably the most interesting aspect of the novel is the dystopian, near-future world Nealen has created. Although no exact year is given, the reader is given the impression it is only a handful of years into the future, but the world has taken a nasty turn for the worse. The US economy has collapsed, and with it a lot of the global economy, coupled with uprisings and destabilization all around the world. This subtle shift in timeline, coupled with the encyclopedia of African and Middle Eastern factions that are mentioned or make an appearance in the book, means that if you're not on top of your global current events and poli-sci, your eyes might glaze over a little bit in certain parts of the book. I don't ding Nealen any points because of this - it means the reader simply needs to pay attention. The book is written to a certain audience, particularly those people who pay attention to world events, military technology and tactics, and enjoy reading about a crew of crack operators kicking down doors and double-tapping bad guys in the X-ring.

Thankfully for Nealen, this sort of fiction has a pre-fabricated audience: former runners and gunners like himself, guys who've played in the sandbox, know the dope, and are also smart, savvy, articulate professionals who'll talk geopolitical trends one minute, the advantages of the .338 Lapua Mag the next, and maybe even settle in for a few beers and some Call of Duty on a lazy Saturday afternoon. These guys might like to call themselves "knuckle-draggers", but to be fair, many of them are or will become college-educated, and possess a lot of skill in assimilating data, dynamic problem-solving, and other cognitive skills. In short, they're smart people, and they can appreciate a smart, complex story like Desperate.

I should perform my due diligence and point out that the action sequences are top notch, flow quickly, and really keep you flipping pages. Nealen isn't above killing characters off, and things get pretty messy before they...well let's face it - there's a reason the book's titled "Task Force Desperate"...

If you like sophisticated, well-written action, give this a read - you won't be disappointed.

Labor Day Free Promotion for KILLER INSTINCTS

My vigilante revenge novel KILLER INSTINCTS is free for the Kindle today on Amazon. I set the promotion up last night and I was going to post the announcement this morning, not realizing how fast some people would pick up on it and start downloading. By 7:30 this morning I'd already had a dozen downloads, and I've had more than 70 so far - and it's not even 11 AM!  I'm currently at #13 for Kindle Men's Adventure. Hopefully we can climb into the single digits by the end of the day.

UPDATE: It's 12:00 PM, and I've hit 132 downloads so far today. I can't believe how well this promotion is working out. At this rate, I may extend the promotion deal into tomorrow.

UPDATE #2: It's 4:30, and there have been 300 downloads. The book is currently #2 in Men's Adventure Free fiction and #736 in all Kindle Free books. Talk about awesome!

Movie Review: The Expendables 2 (2012)

Roughly ten years ago, when I started using the term "Post Modern Pulp", it was in reference to the new wave of action-adventure fiction exploding (pun intended) onto the scene in the wake of the Vietnam War. The popularity of this material - tough guys with guns killing other tough guys with guns while stuff exploded in the background - led to Hollywood ramping up the gratuitous nature of violence and machismo in their films, and with the "blockbuster" mentality of modern film marketing, the action superstars of the 80's were born. Men like Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Norris, Lundgren, Willis, Van Damme, and many others. These guys were iconic beings, and we went to the movies to watch them, not their characters or their movies.

As time went on, the nature of the movie market changed, and while these sorts of movies haven't gone away, they have become less common and - more importantly - less financially successful. However, those of us who always stop whatever it is we're doing and turn up the volume when we see Commando or Invasion U.S.A. on TV remember the halcyon days of the macho action movie, and we want to see those days return. Sadly, I feel the demands of a smarter, savvier, more jaded 21st century movie-going audience mean these sorts of movies aren't likely to return to their old popularity any time soon.

When the first Expendables came out, I loved it. Was it a great movie? Yes and no. It isn't any better than any of the original 80's action movies it emulated, but the concept was what drew me to the film. The desire to relive, even in an imperfect form, those old action movie days was, in my mind, what made The Expendables so great. It was the filmic equivalent of meeting a bunch of old friends, hanging out in a corner bar, having beers, playing darts, grab-assing and shooting the shit for a few hours, and saying to each other, "man, it's good to see you guys again."

Well, if that was the feeling I got from the first Expendables, the best analogy for The Expendables 2 is a full-blown high-velocity keg party that ends with the backyard on fire, the cops showing up, and not an intact window in sight. This movie takes the idea of an old home days for action movie heroes and turns it into a half-homage, half-parody, full-auto spectacle. Many of the one-liners in this movie are references to each other's movies and careers, and while in other circumstances that breach of the fourth wall might be annoying, I found it worked just as it should have here. The Expendables II isn't an action movie, it is a self-referential dedication to a slumbering genre, a simpler time when every movie had one-liners you'd be quoting for years - maybe decades - afterward.

While the first film brought together some of the old-timers of action moviedom with some of the newer faces, this film really focused on the veteran stars. Statham, Couture, and Crews take a bit of a step back in this film, and the older actors definitely take the front stage. Watching them play off against each other, everyone chewing the scenery for all they are worth, it struck me that most of these guys never found themselves in movies together back in the day. When you saw a Stallone movie or a Norris movie, they were the stars, and everyone else was at best a B+ level sidekick or villain. In the world of comic books, it is very common for you to have titles that pull characters together as a team, such as the X-Men or the Justice League, but with the most prominent members of those teams still having their own solo titles. In the world of action movies that was pretty rare, especially during the 80's and 90's, in part because the price tags for many of these stars was so weighty that you'd be spending the majority of your budget just on the salaries of the headlining actors alone.

Now, especially with The Expendables 2, we can see everyone in action together, fighting with each other or against, and the chemistry is a ton of fun. As Chuck Norris' character "Lone Wolf" Booker says at one point, "Sometimes it's fun to run with a pack."

Author Brian Drake Reviews KILLER INSTINCTS

Author and blogger Brian Drake has written a really insightful review of Killer Instincts. One of Brian's main points in the review is that in KI, the story isn't about the showdown between William and the Paggiano family, the story is about William's transformation from aimless college kid to cold-hearted killer. In short, the journey is the destination here.

Of course, I think Brian says it a lot better than I can. Check out the review on his blog, Brian Drake at Large.

 

Book Review: Task Force Intrepid: The Gold of Katanga

Katanga Resources is an African mining company with operations in some of the nastier parts of the Congo. When two of their mining operations are attacked and overrun by gangs of murderous thugs carrying AKs and machetes, someone in a suit picks up a phone and calls in the cavalry.

In this case, the cavalry is Task Force Intrepid.

A team of international badasses led by Willem Kruger, who was born in South Africa but spent much of his life battling across the face of Africa as a member of several elite fighting units. I remember when I was a youngster during the 80's, hearing about the Selous Scouts and the Rhodesian SAS, but at the time, I didn't know much about them. Now, thanks to the much greater body of knowledge we all have access to, more of us are learning about these elite bush fighters and the many dirty wars they engaged in. Many military minds feel that the Scouts and the Rhodesian SAS perfected some of the best light infantry training and battle techniques around.

Back to the book. Kruger and several of his "private security consultant" buddies kit up and fly over to the DRC, or Democratic Republic of the Congo. They learn that both of Katanga's mines are occupied by Rebel scum, and what's more, a number of missionaries have been taken hostage, with a two million dollar price tag on their heads.  TF Intrepid is asked to chopper in and take out the bad guys guarding the mining camps, with extreme prejudice.

I don't want to give away spoilers, so I'll stop relaying the plot at this point. What follows in the book is a lot of high-quality action and adventure, as Kruger and his men begin to kick serious butt. The weapons and tactics are laid out for the reader in an easily digestible fashion, and you can see that the author, Dan Tharp, has really done his homework. You can feel the heat and the sand underneath your boots, you can see the AK-toting scumbags get blown to pieces by .50 caliber sniper fire, and you can feel the R4 assault rifle buck and roar in your hands as you turn rapist filth into buzzard meat. Although the book isn't one big shootout, Tharp does an excellent job of keeping the story moving and not letting the reader bog down in political details or get bored waiting around for the next gunfight.

All in all, if this book had been published 30 years ago, with "Able Team" or "Phoenix Force" above the words "The Gold of Katanga", and instead of Willem Kruger you had Carl Lyons or Yakov Katzenelenbogen leading their respective kill teams, you wouldn't much be able to tell the difference. I hope Dan Tharp understands that, coming from me, that is pretty high praise, since stories like this were the bread and butter of my childhood, and I still enjoy reading them, decades later.

Dan has another TFI book out, Highway to Hell, and I hope to read and review it soon.

The Guns of KILLER INSTINCTS Part 4: The Mooks and Gunsels

In the last of our four-part series on the guns that appear in my novel KILLER INSTINCTS, we look at the weapons carried by all the faceless goons, thugs, mooks, punks, and other assorted scum who find themselves at the wrong end of William's arsenal (see Part 1).

AK-47 7.62x39mm Assault Rifle

First up is the ubiquitous AK-47. The slavers on the Liberian freighter in the beginning of the novel all carry these, and one shows up in the hands of a sentry during the desert gunfight. The "AK" is such a common weapon in Men's Adventure fiction that I knew it had to make more than one appearance in the novel.

Steyr MPi 81 9mm Submachine Gun

This Steyr SMG is found in the hands of a better class of Liberian slaver, the guy only referred to as "Steyr-man" by William. Much like the Uzi, this is going to be the sort of weapon you'll find in the hands of various police forces, armies, mercenaries and criminals all over the world.

Remington 870 Wingmaster 12-Gauge Pump-Action Shotgun

In a couple of instances, pump-action 12-gauge shotguns make their appearances, usually while blasting away at our protagonists. In at least once instance they are referred to as "long-barreled", so a representative shotgun would be this Remington Wingmaster. While normally meant for duck-hunting, you could easily see some hillbilly put it to use for a more sinister purpose.

Colt M-4 5.56mm Assault Rifle

During the desert battle one of the bad guys burns off a mag from an assault rifle at William and Richard. Being the badass that he is, Richard guesses the make and model of the weapon just from its report.

Smith & Wesson Model 4506 .45ACP Automatic

Several bad guys throughout the book carry ".45 caliber automatics". I imagined for most of them that, rather than carrying a M1911-framed auto, it was something more akin to this S&W pistol. The large-frame .45 Smiths were popular back in the 90's, so having the book set in 2001, running across a couple of these makes sense.

Ingram MAC-10 .45ACP Submachine Gun

William gets fired upon out in the desert by someone using an "Ingram machine pistol". As it is such an iconic 80's action movie weapon, the "Big Mac Attack" MAC-10 needed to make at least a cameo appearance.

Smith & Wesson Model 627 .357 Magnum

Although never used in the desert gunfight, a .357 magnum revolver is recovered by William and Richard from a pickup truck.

Savage Arms Axis .30-06 Bolt Action Rifle

Like the .357 Magnum, William and Richard find a .30-06 bolt-action rifle with a scope after the desert gunfight. I wanted their opponents to have a combination of illegal para-military weapons and more common civilian hunting or defense weapons to represent their rural-criminal nature.

Olympic Arms 9mm Carbine

During the final gunfight, one of the Paggiano's gunmen uses a "nine-millimeter carbine". This OA 9mm would be a likely candidate.




 

Colt Detective Special .38 Special Revolver

One of the Paggiano's servants pulls a snubnose revolver on William near the end of the book. I figured it to be a more vintage pistol, like this Detective Special.

Remington 870 12-Gauge Pump-Action Shotgun

A couple of the Paggiano's guards have cut-down pump shotguns like this Remington. The photo here shows one fitted with what looks like a revolver's pistol-grip.

And, that's just about it. I may have missed something, but I didn't bother to give the make and modelof every weapon used in the book (only most of them). I'm a big fan of The Internet Move FirearmsDatabase (check it out - it's awesome), and I decided that, if KILLER INSTINCTS was a movie, Iwanted to create my equivalent of its IMFDb page here at Post Modern Pulp. I hope I did it justice.

The Guns of KILLER INSTINCTS Part 3: The Paggiano Crime Family

For this segment of the series, I've decided to look at the Paggiano crime family (and one of their named henchmen). I'll save the guns used by their nameless gunsels and other firearms that crop up in the book for Part 4.

Julian

SIG Sauer P228 9mm Automatic

An assassin hired by the Paggiano family, Julian is a sleek, stylish, and sophisticated operator, and I wanted to give him a cool-looking handgun to go with his image. While I'm not that big a fan of the SIG series of pistols myself, they are a well regarded family of firearms, and the SIG P228 is a well-made, compact 9mm automatic that's a good counterpoint to something like the Glock 19.









John Paggiano

AKS-74U 5.45x39mm Assault Rifle

 John appears in the final climactic battle of the novel with a "short-barreled AK-style assault rifle". In my mind, the weapon he carried was an AKS-74U. Basically a shortened AK-74 assault rifle with a folding stock, this would be a brutal close-quarters firefight weapon, definitely out-classing an Uzi firing subsonic ammunition.









Mary Paggiano

SIG Sauer P232 .380 Automatic

On the other hand, John's wife, Mary, has a much more subdued weapon - the SIG P232 automatic. Again, a very sleek, well made weapon that would work fine as a carry pistol for a woman who has small hands and isn't able to handle a more powerful recoil. 











Adam Paggiano

Ruger GP100 .357 Magnum Revolver

I don't think it was intended for Adam, John and Mary's teenaged son, to wind up with this Ruger GP100 hand-cannon. However, he gets his hands on one during the final battle. I've fired a Ruger Speed Six in .38, but not this larger handgun. I've always admired the Ruger revolver line, especially the Security Six and Super Redhawk, and I think they often go ignored by people who lean towards Smith & Wesson or Colt. 






Dominic Paggiano

Star S Series .380 Automatic

An old man in his 70's, who probably hasn't had to shoot anyone in a few decades since he's been the head of the family, Dominic has this vintage Star S .380 ACP in his bedstand more for sentimental value. Still, regardless of his age (or the gun's age), Dominic doesn't have any reservations about using it...

The Guns of KILLER INSTINCTS Part 2: Secondary Characters

Continuing this four-part series on the guns used throughout my vigilante revenge thriller, KILLER INSTINCTS, we take a look at the guns carried by the rest of the "good guys" (hahaha) throughout the novel. As mentioned in Part 1, I'm going to try and avoid spoilers as much as possible, so if I am rather vague here and there, it is to protect your reading pleasure.

Steiger

Glock Model 21 .45 Automatic

William first meets the multimillionaire when he's standing on his yacht's deck "wearing a bulletproof vest, with a .45 Glock in one hand and a life preserver in the other, just in case".

Since Steiger lives aboard a 160-foot yacht, I wanted a pistol that fired a powerful cartridge capable of going through light cover, with no concern for concealability.

Heckler & Koch Model 91 7.62mm Rifle w/ Scope

In Steiger's arms locker aboard the yacht, he also has a H&K 91 7.62mm rifle with a scope. Again, for defending a yacht, this is a pretty good rifle, considering its firepower and range.

Mossberg Model 500 Stainless Steel 12-Gauge Shotgun

Last but not least, Steiger also keeps a stainless steel Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun in his arms locker. A model kitted like this, with adjustable stock and pistol grip, would be idea for room-clearing duties aboard a small ship like Steiger's Benetti yacht.



James

M249 SAW 5.56mm Light Machine Gun

James is a young mercenary and former US Army Airborne Ranger. He carries an M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon). Given the tight quarters the assault element is fighting aboard the Liberian freighter, this variant with folding bipod and stock would seem ideal.






Tommy

Galil ACE 5.56mm Assault Rifle

A former SAS soldier until wounded by a roadside bomb, Tommy carries a Galil assault rifle. While not standard British issue, the Galil is a well-made and battle-proven weapon and would be found all over the world. This particular Galil ACE model is a newer design, but its collapsible stock would be handy for shipboard operations.

Kenneth

Benelli M4 12-Gauge Semi-Automatic Shotgun

Kenneth is a former SWAT officer from an unnamed US city, who gets a thrill from breaching rooms and kicking butt. He carries a Benelli semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun, probably something like this Benelli M4 with adjustable stock.

Colt Python .357 Magnum Revolver with Six-Inch Barrel

 In addition to his Benelli, Kenneth carries a .357 magnum revolver, a Colt Python, in a thigh holster. William thinks the combination of shotgun and magnum revolver makes Kenneth look like "an 80's action movie hero". I'll point out that Carl "Ironman" Lyons from the Able Team books carries a 4-inch barrel Python as his "backup" handgun...






Richard

Colt Delta Elite 10mm Automatic

The Delta Elite 10mm automatic is a powerful pistol built by Colt on the frame of their classic M1911 .45 auto. The full-powered 10mm cartridges turn this into a magnum-level handgun, but with an 8-round magazine capacity and all the speed and reaction time of a "cocked and locked" automatic. Richard carries this as his personal firearm throughout most of the novel, and it shows that he is a shooter with very particular tastes in terms of what he wants from a combat handgun.

Heckler & Koch MK 23 SOCOM .45 Automatic

The Heckler & Koch MK 23 SOCOM .45 automatic was created for special forces units as an "offensive handgun". For most military forces, a sidearm is considered purely a defensive weapon for officers, drivers, and other personnel who need protection but not the bulk of a full sized weapon. The MK 23, on the other hand, was designed to be a weapon for eliminating sentries, guard dogs, and other "offensive" shooting situations. The pistol shown here has a suppressor and a laser sight. Most likely, the laser is tuned so that it can only be seen while wearing low-light goggles. Richard carries this gun when he's "operational", as opposed to everyday carry.

Springfield Armory Longslide .45 Automatic

This longslide .45 automatic is similar to the sort of pistol Richard keeps in his desert "cache" away from his cabin. The longer barrel and better sights would make engaging at long distances easier.

Remington 770 Sporter ,308 Bolt Action Rifle

Along with the pistol, Richard also kept a scoped bolt-action rifle in the cache. He felt that with the two weapons, plus the limited supplies and ammunition stored there, he could engage any threat that prevented him from returning to his cabin while on one of his morning or evening runs in the desert. The rifle shown here is a Remington 770 Sporter in .308 Winchester.

AR-15 Heavy Barrel with Scope

While training with his DeLisle Carbine, William is led into the desert for several days by Richard, who carries with him an AR-15 with long-range scope. This gun figures heavily in a scene where Richard tests William on how far his new "outlook" on life has taken his sense of morality.

Jamie

Colt Government Model .45 Automatic

Having developed a familiarity with "old slab-sides" while in the Army, Jamie is most comfortable with an M1911-styled pistol. I always imagined Jamie's gun had some subtle modifications, which is why I picked the Colt Government Model, depicted here with Novak combat sights and an aftermarket trigger, hammer, and grip safety. as well as slide groves cut down by the muzzle. I've actually handled and fired a Colt Government Model and found it to be a very fine pistol. For Jamie, showing that he sticks to a more traditional gun, but with some slight modifications, helps represent his special forces background.

Tokarev T-33 7.62x25mm Automatic

 Near the end of the novel, William finds a cache hidden by Jamie. In it, among other things, Jamie kept this Tokarev T-33. Although primitive by today's standards, during Vietnam it was a typical NVA or VC officer's sidearm. It can be reasonably presumed that Jamie "acquired" it while fighting in Southeast Asia and tucked it away as a keepsake, kept separate from his other guns as it would be, no doubt, illegal contraband taken home from the war.

Smith & Wesson Model 10 .38 Special Revolve

Jamie teaches William how to shoot a handgun for the first time using a very basic, 60's vintage Smith & Wesson Model 10. This is about as fundamental as a pistol can get, but at the same time, countless police officers around the country carried one of these for decades. In the hands of someone who knew what they were doing, even the modest Model 10 could be a deadly handgun.

It is noted by William that Jamie's specimen had some "grooves" cut into the grip near the back-strap, and Richard seems to indicate that he knew just what revolver this was when it is later mentioned to him. I've decided that's a story for another day, and another novel...

The Guns of KILLER INSTINCTS Part 1: William's Arsenal

So if you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know I'm something of a gun guy. Although I live in one of the most gun-unfriendly states in the U.S. right now (Massachusetts), I'm from Maine and born in Alaska, two states packed chock-full of guns. I've been shooting since I was about five years old, and firearms of all shapes, sizes, and types fascinate me.

Because of this, it should come as no surprise that my novel KILLER INSTINCTS is loaded with a bunch of gun-related goodness.  I've never actually calculated out a complete body count, but "several dozen" is pretty close. And when you've got a lot of bodies being perforated by bullets, you've got a lot of guns helping those bullets get where they need to go. So, I thought it would be a nice exercise to provide some photos and commentary about the various guns that appear in the novel.

First up, I'm going to walk through the guns used by William, the main character. I'm going to try and avoid spoilers, so if I seem vague, it's so I don't ruin anything for future readers.

Uzi 9mm Submachine Gun with Sionics Suppressor

For starters, the Uzi 9mm SMG. This is William's main weapon from the first chapter all the way to the climactic final battle. Although more than half a century old, the Uzi is a rugged, simple, dependable weapon that can be found all over the world, used by dozens of military and law enforcement entities. Although eclipsed these days by more sophisticated systems like the H&K MP-5, for many years the Uzi was the submachine gun. As KILLER INSTINCTS is, in part, an homage to men's adventure fiction and 80's action movies, I felt that giving the main character the gun that epitomized that era of action entertainment was very fitting. I've never handled or fired an Uzi, but there is a gun range in New Hampshire that has automatic weapons you can use on their range, so I hope to rectify that some day.

Ruger MK II .22 Automatic with Integral Suppressor

Next up we have the suppressed Ruger .22 automatic. William uses one of these in the opening pages of the book to kill someone with a triple-tap to the base of the skull. What a charmer, right? This weapon is very similar to the old Hi-Standard .22 automatic with suppressor made famous by the OSS in World War Two, and later used by the SOG teams in Vietnam for killing dogs and sentries. What it'll lack in stopping power, it'll make up for in incredibly quiet operation. While I've never fired a suppressed Ruger, my father owned a Ruger MK II for many years, and it was a very handy, easy-shooting pistol, perfect as a "plinking" pistol, target shooting, or other light duties.

Glock Model 19 9mm Automatic

Later on in the novel, William's primary pistol becomes the Glock 19 9mm automatic. I've fired a Glock 19 several times, and its compact size, light weight, and overall ease of operation, combined with the magazine capacity and performance of the 9mm round, made it an excellent choice for a beginner's "combat pistol".

When I write about guns and the people who carry them, I try to make sure the personality of the weapon matches the personality of the user. When we meet William in the beginning of the novel, he's a veteran mercenary who has killed more men than he cares to think about. Because of this, I wanted him to have a somewhat exotic, specialized weapon like the Ruger. On the other hand, when we see William as a complete newbie to using guns, a simple, easy to operate pistol like the Glock fitted his personality much better.

Beretta Model 84 .32 ACP Automatic

The Beretta 84 Cheetah .32 automatic is somewhat more specialized than the Glock, but the .32 ACP cartridge and the weapon's small, compact size make it easy to handle and shoot. Fitted with a suppressor, this would give a shooter a more powerful cartridge than the Ruger and slightly higher magazine capacity (12 vs. 10), but with a somewhat louder report. As Richard tells William, the Beretta is a blend between firepower and silence. I've never used the Model 84 myself, although I've fired a Beretta 92 Compact. For a number of years, the 92 C was the carry pistol of the Maine State Police force, and I knew (and had the opportunity to shoot with) several Maine State Troopers.

Smith & Wesson Model 36 "Chief's Special" .38 Revolver

The last handgun William uses in the novel is the S&W Model 36, a snubnose .38 Special revolver he carries as a backup pistol. Although it has limited range and only a five shot capacity, as Richard puts it to William, "If you can't punch the ticket on some knuckle-dragging goombah with five shots after I'm done with you, I'll eat my cowboy boots."

I've never fired a snub .38 myself, although I've fired a similarly-framed Smith & Wesson .32 revolver. While the grip might be small, the gun sits easily in the hand, and you can see why they were (and still are) so popular as carry pistols. 

DeLisle Commando Carbine .45 ACP with Integral Suppressor

The DeLisle .45 carbine is a weapon I found while doing research for another project involving weapons from World War Two. A highly specialized, but surprisingly simple idea to create a bolt-action carbine chambering the effective (and at the time, subsonic) .45 ACP pistol cartridge, then giving the weapon a large and extremely efficient suppressor. While still using pistol ammunition, this would make for a very quiet, very accurate weapon capable of making kills far beyond the range at which anyone would hear the weapon's suppressed report. Although supposedly only 139 of these weapons were ever made, I have seen that modern gunsmiths have re-created the weapon using modern methods and materials. Richard picks this for William's "urban sniping operations" because it is accurate, quiet, and simple to use. William's version has a folding stock, a bipod, and a low-light scope for night shooting.

Cut-Down Remington Model 1100 12-Gauge Shotgun

Finally, the last weapon William uses in the novel is a chopped down Remington 1100 semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun. As pointed out to him by Richard, this is a highly specialized weapon, best for emptying very quickly into an enclosed space, such as an automobile. Loaded with double-ought buckshot, the 1100 fired fast will put more individual shots downrange than a submachine gun in the same amount of time.  I've never fired a semi-automatic 12-gauge before, but I've handled a number of pump-guns. Firing a cut-down 1100 would be quite the experience (assuming I used one with a legal barrel length, of course).


So, that's that for part one. As you can see, some very cool guns, and I hope to have more for you in parts two and three!